uitvconnet

American hotel chain, Marriott International has reopened all of its hotels in China and the group said that it has seen a recovery in business travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported on Tuesday.

The world's third largest hotel chain has 350 outlets across China, reports the BBC.

Marriott gave an upbeat statement on Monday about its business in China as it emerges from coronavirus lockdowns.

Last week it said the financial impact from the pandemic has been more severe for the hotel chain than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis combined.

In the statement, Marriott Chief Executive Arne Sorenson said the occupancy rates at its Chinese hotels had been as low as 7 per cent in late January when China was at its peak of cases.

But that occupancy rate is now at 40 per cent, according to the company.

"It's not just leisure travel growing, but it is business travel. Chinese are flying again," the BBC quoted Sorenson as saying.

However, he warned that occupancy might not recover to pre-coronavirus levels for several years.

The hotel group, which owns about 30 brands including Ritz-Carlton, St Regis and Sheraton, has extended furloughs for employees and reduced working weeks until early October.

"Given the company's expectation that prior levels of business will not return until beyond 2021, the company anticipates a significant number of above-property position eliminations later this year," it said in a statement.

Rival Hilton reopened all of its 255 hotels in China two weeks ago and introduced a CleanStay initiative to protect employees and guests, the BBC reported.

The coronavirus pandemic originated in the city of Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province, last December.

As of Tuesday, China registered 84,154 COVID-19 cases, with 4,638 deaths.

Read More: https://www.uitvconnect.com/newspaper/marriott-international-reopens-all-hotels-china

YouTube has started rolling out its video chapters features with the aim of helping its users on desktop, mobile or tablets to focus on the portions that matter the most to them.

The feature will also allow creators to better organise their content. It is expected to be particularly of great help for long-form videos.

With such videos organised by chapters, just like a book, users will be able to skip some portions that they may find irrelevant.

"The Video Chapters feature is officially here," the YouTube Twitter handle for creators said on Thursday.

"When Chapters are enabled, viewers watch more of the video, and come back more often on average," it added.

The video chapters feature was soft launched by YouTube in April, The Verge reported.

YouTube users on desktop would know if the video they are watching has chapters when they hover the mouse over the bar that indicates video progress.

This bar will have breaks to indicate the end of one chapter and beginning of another. Hovering over these little breaks will also tell you the name of the chapters.

The same applies to users of other mobile devices as well. But YouTube's phone app will trigger a haptic buzz the moment a user reaches the next chapter.

On other mobile devices, such as tablets, where haptic feedback is not available, when a user lifts his/her finger off the screen, the video progress bar will automatically snap to the beginning of a new chapter, said the report.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that he will ask Parliament next week to extend the State of Alarm that was imposed on March 15 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, for another 15 days when it expires on May 9.

If the request is granted by the Congress, the lower chamber of Spanish Parliament, it would be the fourth extension, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The State of Alarm has worked in Spain... So we will ask the Congress for another extension for a further 15 days," Sanchez said on Saturday in a televised speech.

His address came on the same day when majority of Spaniards were allowed outdoors to take exercise for the first time after seven weeks of virtual lockdown

"We are collecting the fruits of the efforts of these seven weeks," he said, referring to relaxations of the lockdown restrictions.

The Prime Minister pointed to the falling number of new deaths and new cases in Spain, where 276 new deaths and 1,147 new cases were confirmed by the Health Ministry on Saturday, to insist that "we knew that confinement was the way to stop the propagation of the virus".

He then looked ahead to the four-stage roadmap he set out earlier in the week to bring a "new normality" to post-pandemic Spain.

Each of the stages (numbered 0 to 3) will last at least two weeks.

Each of Spain's 50 provinces will only be able to move from one stage to another after meeting a series of requirements.

Stage 0 is due to begin in most of the country on May 4 and will be a "preparation phase" while stage 1 will allow small businesses and hotels to reopen although without common areas.

Meanwhile, stages 2 and 3 will see restaurants, cinemas and theatres reopen to 30 per cent of their capacity, before increasing that to 50 per cent by the end of June, when people will also be able to use public beaches but with social distancing restrictions.

Sanchez added that from May 4, it would be obligatory to use face masks on public transport.

A State of Alarm is the first of three emergency levels a Spanish government can apply under exceptional circumstances.

It grants the government special powers to limit the movement of citizens, control the means of production, use private assets if needed and also use the military to carry out essential logistical and supply jobs.

Spain currently accounts for 216,582 coronavirus cases, with 25,100 deaths.

UiTV is a premier, full-screen, high definition internet television network. It has 12 free channels to connect viewers with a diverse range of quality content including News, Sports, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Social Networking, Business, Travel, Culture and Global Newspaper.

Read more: https://www.uitvconnect.com